Russia, U.S. To Sign Deal On Plutonium

The turbine room of a Russian plutonium facility in Tomsk (file photo)

Russia and the United States are expected to sign a deal today on reducing stocks of weapons-grade plutonium.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will sign a protocol on the second day of a nuclear security summit in Washington.

It comes after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama signed the 'New START' treaty committing the Cold War foes to reducing their deployed nuclear arsenals.

On the first day of the Washington summit, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych announced after a meeting with Obama that his country would rid itself of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium by 2012.

compiled from agency reports